How to Use Hashtags Effectively to Scale Your Business

You don’t have to spend much time on social media to notice that using hashtags is a major trend.

Whether you follow friends, family members, or brands, you’ve probably seen hashtags on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

You may see #FBF and #FlashbackFriday or #TBT and #ThrowbackThursday when your friends post old photos.

You’ve likely seen Thanksgiving-related hashtags during the holiday season, and Fourth of July-themed ones close to Independence Day.

Chances are you saw a lot quite a few posts using #Olympics and #Tokyo2021 during the past summer.

Hashtags are everywhere on social media, and for good reason! They are a powerful marketing tool that has the potential to boost your engagement, increase your brand awareness, and expand your reach.

Here are the ins and outs of hashtags and how you can use them on social media to grow your brand:

What are hashtags?

Hashtags are words or phrases that are preceded by a hashtag symbol (#) that are meant to categorize specific content.

For instance, if your brand sends a tweet about an upcoming Black Friday sale, using #BlackFridaySale will help your followers know that your tweet has to do with Black Friday sales. Using this will also make your content more visible to people who are searching for information about Black Friday sales.

When someone searches for a particular hashtag, they are interested in seeing relevant content about that particular topic. By including them on your social media posts, you can help people find your brand when they search for related hashtags.

Why should you use hashtags?

Hashtags aren’t just for Millennials anymore. You can use hashtags to help scale your business and increase the engagement and interactions you receive on social media.

Tweets that use hashtags can increase engagement by up to 50%, and tweets with 1-2 hashtags have a 55% higher chance of being retweeted than tweets that do not use them at all.

On Instagram, posts using at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than posts without hashtags.

By adding hashtags to your posts, you can make significant improvements to your social media marketing strategy and your brand’s social media presence.

How can you use hashtags effectively?

While adding a couple of words behind a hashtag symbol might seem simple enough, using them effectively will require more skill and effort.

Here are a few tips for using hashtags on different social media platforms:

Don’t overdo it

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing! Using too many on a social media post, especially on Twitter or LinkedIn, can actually cause more harm than good.

While Instagram and TikTok posts fare pretty well with multiple hashtags, don’t use more than one or two on your Twitter and LinkedIn posts.

Be intentional

Make sure every hashtag you include on a social media post is used for a reason. This will keep you from using irrelevant or random keywords that don’t resonate with your target audience.

A couple of great ways to use hashtags are to provide relevant or additional context for a social media post, show your brand’s support for social issues, or capitalize on a current topic or movement that is trending online.

You should always have a clear purpose when you are using hashtags on any social media platform.

Do your research

When you see a hashtag trending, it can be tempting to try and fire off a tweet right away to take advantage of its growing popularity.

That’s what Entenmann’s thought when they tried to capitalize on the hashtag #notguilty in a tweet meant to advertise baked goods. Entenmann’s ultimately had to delete the tweet and issue a public apology after realizing that the hashtag used in the tweet referenced Casey Anthony’s not guilty murder verdict.

Don’t make the same mistake when you use hashtags on your social media posts. Take a moment, do some research, and figure out its context and why it is trending before you try to use it yourself.

Watch your competitors

Are there certain hashtags that your top competitors seem to use frequently? Try to see how you can incorporate some of them into your own posts.

This will give you an idea of keywords and topics that you may not have previously considered that will be relevant to your target audience.

When you are able to use hashtags effectively, you will start to see how they can help your brand’s online presence continue to grow.

So, are you to scale your business and soar new heights? Learn more about crafting high-quality social media content  for your brand when you contact Repurpose House. Schedule a demo with us today!

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